Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla will now steer the debt-ridden Vodafone Idea as its new non-executive chairman, the company said on Tuesday.
He will replace Ravinder Takkar, who has stepped down from the position but will continue to assist Birla as non-executive vice-chairman, according to a regulatory filing.
Vodafone Idea said that the board of directors has "Approved the appointment of Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, a Non-Executive Director, as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vodafone Idea Limited with effect from 5th May 2026." .
The board has also approved the appointment of Takkar "as the Non-Executive Vice Chairman, PTI reported. Birla had, on several occasions, given up hope of continuing the operations of Vodafone Idea following the Supreme Court order in 2019 on the company's adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.
AGR dues
The AGR dues of around Rs 53,000 crore were on top of the debt that the company had accrued by then, following losses due to the onslaught of free voice calling and dirt cheap data unleashed by the richest Indian Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, as per PTI.
However, the company received relief from the apex court last year, which enabled the government to relax Vodafone's AGR dues by about 27 per cent to Rs 64,046 crore after reassessing the statutory dues from Rs 87,695 crore frozen by the cabinet on December 31, 2025.
Some analysts are of the view that the relief given by the government is not in line with the expectation. Analysts such as IIFL Capital said a waiver of interest, penalty and interest on penalty would have yielded 75 per cent relief. "Alternatively, if DoT agreed with Vi's self-assessment, the relief would have been around 65 per cent (going by Vi's submission to DoT in early 2020). Against these expectations, DoT's 27 per cent reduction in AGR dues is modest," IIFL Capital report said.
Company has to clear final dues in over ten years
The company has to clear final dues in two sets spread over ten years, and the first payment is due after five years. It will need to pay a minimum of Rs 100 crore annually over four years from FY 2031-32 to FY 2034-35 and the remaining amount in six equal instalments annually from FY 2035-36 to FY 2040-41, which will amount to Rs 10,608 crore annually, the filing said.
The company, however, has to make an annual payment of Rs 124 crore towards AGR dues pertaining to FY2018 and FY2019 from March 2026 to March 2031. These dues were not part of the reassessment, according to PTI.
Analysts see a challenge in Vi's spectrum dues, which remain unchanged. Bofa Global Research said that the company has to make repayments of Rs 49,000 crore due over the next three years - rising from around Rs 7,000 crore in the first year to Rs 15,000 crore in the second and Rs 27,000 crore in the third year.
Despite getting the relief from the government, the company continues to be a loss-making firm. Vi has incurred a loss of Rs 17,418 crore during the nine months ended December 2025, and its net worth stood at negative Rs 87,744 crore. (With Agency Inputs)
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